Did you know that there are purely metric signs (without any imperial conversions) on major roads at one hundred metre intervals? If you know this, you are one of the few who do. I am referring to marker posts and driver location signs. These signs are used by the emergency services to help them to locate stranded drivers and are incompatible with the official traffic signs for the general public, which are almost exclusively imperial.
Continue reading “DfT hides metric nature of location signs from general public”British driver caught speeding in France after misreading km/h for mph
A British driver in France has been stripped of his driver licence after misreading a 125 km/h speed limit sign for 125 mph. This is not the first time that miles and kilometres have been confused when reading speed limits. Back in January 2021, Metric Views reported a similar case of a high-profile foreign Premier League footballer who confused km/h and mph when driving in the UK. And it is unlikely to be the last time it happens.
Continue reading “British driver caught speeding in France after misreading km/h for mph”Legal ambiguity of dual unit restriction signs
Dual units have been mandatory on restriction signs since TSRGD 2016. For height restrictions, the imperial and metric units normally appear on a single sign though they can appear on separate adjacent signs. Most height restriction traffic signs for bridges now show dual units. If your vehicle complies with both values, you can drive under the bridge. If your vehicle does not comply with either value, you cannot drive under the bridge. But what if your vehicle complies with only one of the values? Can you drive under the bridge in this case?
Continue reading “Legal ambiguity of dual unit restriction signs”50 years of metric road signs in Australia
1 July 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the switch to metric road signs in Australia.
For about a year before the change, car manufacturers fitted dual speedometers to their vehicles and, after 1974 all new cars were fitted with metric-only speedometers. Several kinds of speedometer conversion kits were available. As a result of all these changes, conversion on the roads occurred without incident.
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Do our motorway junction numbers hinder the use of driver location signs?
Recent Metric Views articles have discussed the poor awareness of the meaning of driver location signs amongst the general public, and argued that despite their inclusion in recent editions of the Highway Code, there is still a need for a new public information campaign about these signs.
However, could there be another reason why driver location signs are poorly understood? And is there a solution that would both increase public awareness and increase their use?
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No more official publicity for driver location signs
The Government have confirmed that there will be no more official publicity of driver location signs in a response to UKMA member Martin Vlietstra. Driver location signs use yellow font colour on a blue background with a white border and appear along the edges of motorways and on certain dual carriageway A-roads in England. They are normally spaced at 500 metre intervals.
Continue reading “No more official publicity for driver location signs”Transport software company increases chance of errors by using dual units
Jaama, a transport software company, advertises its MyVehicle App software product on its website with images showing that it uses both kilometres and miles. 1 Using dual units within software introduces the possibility of conversion errors and unit mix-ups. There are real-world examples of errors arising from the use of dual units in transport. Some are described in this article.
Continue reading “Transport software company increases chance of errors by using dual units”Driverless Cars
The on-going development of driverless cars is seldom out of the headlines. There are questions about the reliability of the software which will drive the cars and who will be liable should there be an accident.
Continue reading “Driverless Cars”International Vocabulary of Metrology
International Vocabulary of Metrology (VIM) is a “System of Units”, not a “System of Measurement”. The VIM explains the terminology used in publications related to measurement, including the official SI brochure.
Continue reading “International Vocabulary of Metrology”International Organisation for Legal Metrology
The International Organisation for Legal Metrology (OIML from the French “Organisation Internationale de Métrologie Légale”) is housed in a non-descript office in the Rue Turgot in the 9th arrondissement of Paris and is about 700 metres the from the Gare du Nord. Like the BIPM, the OIML is an inter-governmental organisation which gives its staff quasi-diplomatic status, though, like the BIPM, French nationals pay French income tax. The OIML works closely with BIPM, the International Standards Organization (ISO) and other international bodies in coordinating metrology around the globe, with each organisation having its own specific role.
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Metric Views 